Final Brexit Bill | The Restoration of British Sovereignty

According to Wikipedia, the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is the organised, agreed foreign policy of the European Union, for mainly security, defence diplomacy and actions.

This includes the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), which relates to defence and crisis management, implemented by EU structures in CSDP missions, drawing on civilian and military assets provided by member states.

Based on articles 42–46 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), the CSDP also entails a mutual defence clause amongst member states, as well as a Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), in which 25 of the 28 national armed forces pursue structural integration.

In simple terms, the control and command of British armed forces, without which no nation is sovereign, was treasonously ceded to the unelected, unaccountable EU commissars, by way of the Lisbon Treaty.

However, despite the virtual refusal of the Johnson government to even discuss this in last month’s successful election campaign, it appears that they have treated the issue as being inextricably linked to the issue of sovereignty, which is a primary focus in the Final Brexit bill.

EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill

Whilst the language used is typically convoluted, perhaps in this case for very obvious reasons, Parliament has now ratified a bill which, at least on its face, will guarantee more than Britain’s formal exit from the EU.

It will also implicitly repeal all enactments relating to the Common Foreign and Security Policy, which naturally includes the Common Security and Defence Policy and PESCO.

In support of this assertion, section 1 of the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill prescribes the following critical amendments to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018:

After section 1 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (repeal of the European Communities Act 1972) insert—

“Savings for implementation period

1A Saving for ECA for implementation period

(1) Subsections (2) to (4) have effect despite the repeal of the European Communities Act 1972 on exit day by section 1.

(2) The European Communities Act 1972, as it has effect in domestic law or the law of a relevant territory immediately before exit day, continues to have effect in domestic law or the law of the relevant territory on and after exit day so far as provided by subsections (3) to (5).

(3) The Act of 1972 has effect on and after exit day as if —

(a) the definitions of “the Treaties” and “the EU Treaties” given by section 1(2) to (4) (interpretation)—

(i) included Part 4 of the withdrawal agreement (implementation period), other than that Part so far as it relates to, or could be applied in relation to, the Common Foreign and Security Policy, but

(ii) were otherwise limited to anything which falls within those definitions as at immediately before exit day so far as it is not excluded by regulations made on or after exit day by a Minister of the Crown under this sub-paragraph […]

In other much more comprehensible words:

Under section 1A(3)(a)(i) of the bill, Britain’s commitment to the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy will have no legal effect from the repeal of the 1972 Act, which is set to take place on 31/01/2020.

This is being done despite the continued enforceability of other EU Law during the year long transition period [which section 33 of the bill expressly prohibits the extension of].

After that, all statutory references to EU Law will become references to UK Law, save for the controversial provisions relating to the Irish border, the future of which will nevertheless be in the hands of the Northern Irish Assembly.

However, the bill gives a Minister of the Crown the authority to make regulations to exclude any or even all EU-derived laws from those which are retained as UK Law, as well as repeal those which are not compatible with it.

Clearly, this bill spells the end of the purported superiority of EU Law on these shores, which the previous Brexit Bills sought to perpetuate.

It also represents the termination of the power of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels, Strasbourg and elsewhere to determine the laws under which Britons live and the wars we have to fight.

Restoration of Sovereignty

Furthermore, section 38(1) of the bill emphatically declares that the UK Parliament is recognised as being “sovereign”:

It is recognised that the Parliament of the United Kingdom is sovereign.

Section 38(3) reaffirms this, then goes one legal step further:

Accordingly, nothing in this Act derogates from the sovereignty of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

In effect, nothing in the Final Brexit bill undermines that sovereignty, which necessarily requires control and command of our own armed forces.

However, Parliament only ever holds sovereignty on trust because it is always returned to the people of Britain, for the purposes of holding a general election of the new government to be entrusted with it.

It is therefore reasonable to deduce that the Final Brexit bill is just as much a reaffirmation of the sovereignty of the British people, as it is of the sovereignty of Parliament.

Moreover, it also puts to an end to previously plausible speculation that Britain would remain a vassal state of the EU commissars, in spite of Brexit – a Brexit without the Exit.

In the event the new bill was not drafted to eradicate the UK’s subjection to EU Defence Union rules, as of exit day, that would have indeed been the case.

End of the Westminster Brexit Pantomime

Nevertheless, the Final Brexit Bill is of extreme political and legal significance, for a number of reasons, as diligent subscribers to this blog over the course of the past three years will already know.

However, for the purposes of illuminating those who have only recently come across my work, the posts below should provide all you need to absorb in order to fully grasp the enormity of the turnaround which has transpired, behind the curtain of the Westminster Brexit Pantomime.

Suffice to say, whatever your opinion of Boris Johnson, it appears increasingly likely that history will record that Britain nullified five decades of the treasonous ceding of its sovereignty to the EU, when Boris fulfilled his election promise to the people and actually got Brexit done.

Furthermore, there is simply no way in which national sovereignty could be re-established whilst leaving the command and control of British armed forces, arms procurement and nuclear deterrent in the unaccountable hands of the unelected EU commissars.

The very fact that Parliament exercised its sovereignty in excluding the commitment to remain under such tyrannical rule, before emphatically reaffirming that sovereignty and declaring that nothing in the bill can derogate from that, is enough to convince me that Exit Day will be recorded as the day Britain restored its sovereignty and took back control of its armed forces.